THAGANI BAI Vs. STATE OF MADHYA PRADESH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE accused-appellant Mst. Thagani Bai has been convicted by the First Additional Sessions Judge, Durg, under section 302 of the Indian penal Code on two counts for committing the murders of her two children aged 5 years and 1 year respectively by voluntarily jumping along with them into a well on the 11 th of March 1967 at Bhilai, and sentenced to imprisonment for life on each count. The sentences have been ordered to run concurrently.

(2.) THE defence of the accused-appellant was that she had not jumped into the well voluntarily but had been pushed into it by her husband Rama. She, however, examined no witness in her defence.

(3.) THE facts in this case are not very much in dispute. Mst. Thagani bai, the accused-appellant, is the wife of one Rama (P. W. 11), a rickshaw-puller. She had borne him two sons : Gopal and Ganesh. Rama used to ill-treat her. According to Tulsi Prasad (P. W. 10), Rama used to quarrel with mst. Thagani Bai practically every day on very ordinary matters and also beat her at night. On the date of the incident, i. e. , on the 11th of March 1967, also Rama had beaten Mst. Thagani Bai at about 4 p. m.